Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: An interview/obituary
by W. B. Northrop printed in the 22 November 1913 edition of the New York
magazine The Outlook. Note the several flagged errors of factual
detail. Original pagination indicated within double brackets. To link
directly to this page, connect with: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S753.htm

[[p. 619]] Dr. Alfred
Russel Wallace, the famous English scientific and sociological writer,
who recently passed away in his ninety-first year, was a man of marked
personality. It was the good fortune of the writer some time ago to spend
a day with him at his country home in Kent,1 near Broadstone, and to obtain
from him first-hand an interesting account of his own life, together with
his views on some of the many present-day topics on which the versatile
mind of the naturalist delighted to speculate.

Dr. Wallace, with all his distinction as the
co-discoverer, or rather expounder, of the theory of natural selection--sharing
the honor with Darwin--and despite his many other achievements in intellectual
pursuits, was a man of great modesty. It is seldom that greatness in this
world is allied to humility; but Dr. Wallace possessed self-abnegation
to a rare degree. This was evinced early in his career, when his researches
in natural history led him to conclusions in natural selection identical
with those of Darwin. In 1858 Dr. Wallace was in New Guinea and made a
careful study of the inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago, a treatise
on whom he forwarded to Sir Charles Lyell, President of the Royal Society.2
He requested Sir Charles to show his paper to Darwin, and the latter was
astounded to find that young Wallace had worked out in its entirety his
own ideas on natural selection. The reception of this paper by the President
of the Royal Society compelled Darwin to "rush into print" with the "Origin
of Species," thus receiving all the credit for the so-called discovery
of natural selection. Dr. Wallace never attempted to deprive Darwin of
any of the glory of the work, and when he lectured in America some years
later insisted on paying all honor to his co-discoverer and friend.

Dr. Wallace's home life was ideal. He occupied
a small tract of land called the Old Orchard, not far from the little
village of Broadstone, one of the prettiest hamlets of Kent, about five
hours' ride southwest from London. His house was of the rambling English
country type, and stood on a knoll commanding a view of the town of Poole
and its pretty harbor. Here Dr. Wallace spent the evening of his days,
devoting his spare time, when not writing books and magazine articles,
to raising chickens, gardening, cross-country walking, and playing chess
with neighbors who chanced to call. Up to within a year or two ago Dr.
Wallace had been assisted in his work by Mrs. Wallace, who helped to prepare
all his manuscripts and to read the proofs of his various books and articles.
Dr. Wallace, like our Mark Twain, did all of his work with a pen, and
never cultivated dictating to stenographers or using a typewriter. He
made it a point to turn out each day about six thousand words--a high
average for literary production.

As President of the English Society for Land
Nationalization Dr. Wallace took a keen and active interest in the crusade
of Chancellor Lloyd George against landlordism. Dr. Wallace's book on
Land Nationalization has recently sold extensively throughout England,
and accomplished much toward educating the democracy as to the power possessed
by those who own the soil.

There was scarcely a
living topic of the day in which Dr. Wallace was not interested. He was
a great believer in country life, and one of his dreams was the "demagnetization"
of great towns. He believed that a return to country life was a panacea
for many social evils, and lent every encouragement in his power to the
efforts put forward in many parts of England to build "garden cities."
The reading of Edward Bellamy's famous "Looking Backward" exerted considerable
influence on the mind of Dr. Wallace, and it was the attempt to carry
out some of the ideas of Bellamy that gave the learned Doctor the reputation
of being an out-and-out Socialist. Among others who exerted a strong influence
on his mind were Robert Owen, Adam Smith, and Ebenezer Howard. The last-mentioned
person was the builder of the first English "garden city" at Letchworth,
in which enterprise Dr. Wallace was deeply interested. He hoped by building
numerous "garden city" centers near the big towns to attract most of the
residential population away from the latter, and thus, in time, to [[p.
620]] destroy their glamour for the multitude. Congestion of population
would thus naturally eliminate itself, through the process of "demagnetization;"
that is, by the great centers losing their attractiveness.3

The first occasion on
which the writer met Dr. Wallace was the result of a visit following a
request for an interview. On arriving at the village of Broadstone I was
met by a tall, lank, broad-shouldered figure, with snow-white beard and
hair, wearing a broad-brimmed hat of Western style and blue glasses which
emphasized the pallor of the countenance. The suit of dark material which
Dr. Wallace wore seemed a few sizes too large and the shoes looked particularly
well adapted for cross-country walking. Though a certain amount of disregard
of conventionality was displayed in his dress, there was no untidiness.
Dr. Wallace showed no signs of old age except his white hair. His gait
was a vigorous stride and his conversation brisk and full of human interest.
He had walked over to meet me--a mile from home--and thought nothing of
walking back, though it was raining with that persistent downpour so typical
of the English climate.

On the way Dr. Wallace
discoursed eloquently on the advantages of country life. He had lived
in London for some time after his return from the Malay Archipelago in
1858,4 but in 1871 he decided definitely to
shake the dust of cities from his feet forever.

"Since that time," he
said on this occasion, "I have stuck to the country, and nothing could
ever again induce me to return to city life. The life now lived by people
in modern cities is absolutely false--not false in that it is not true,
or that it is deliberately deceitful, but false in the fact that it is
not the life conducive to human happiness. I believe," he continued, "that
a strong reaction is setting in towards a return to more healthful conditions,
and in order to obtain them the cities must be abandoned. I have traveled
a great deal," added the Doctor, "not so much because I wished to travel
as that I wished to study life under different conditions, and I am convinced
that the truly happy life of the future will be that spent in the country.
Life in the cities destroys the spiritual in man; and while it is true
that more money is to be made in cities, and more creature comfort may
be obtained, the materialism of cities offsets any advantage which might
otherwise be derived in the centers of population."

On the occasion of my
visit to Dr. Wallace he was asked to sit for the photograph which accompanies
this article. He demurred a little to the ordeal, but finally consented,
and while thus posing for the camera discussed the advantages of modern
illustrated journalism. No subject seemed too small for his keen analysis,
and his conversational powers were exceptional. With all his great knowledge
on many deep subjects of science, he displayed no self-assertiveness whatever,
and, though having pronounced and daring views on many debatable topics,
he put forward his arguments without dogmatism.

On the occasion of this
visit I asked Dr. Wallace to sketch for me briefly the principal events
of his career. He said:

"I don't know that there
is anything especially interesting in being born, but of course I was.
You always begin with that, I think, in interviews. The day was January
8, 1823, to be exact. My father was Thomas Vere Wallace, and he died when
I was eleven years old.5 I am of Scottish
descent.6 I was educated in the ordinary way
at Hertford School, where I lived until my fourteenth year.

"My brother was a surveyor
and architect, and from my fourteenth to my twenty-first year I worked
in his office. I enjoyed outdoor life, and the career of architect did
not appeal to me. When twenty-one, I became a teacher of English in the
Collegiate School at Leicester. My brother died in the following year,
and I succeeded to his business.

"I spent some time as
a surveyor on the railway, but, as part of my duty was to collect money
from farmers in the neighborhood, I became thoroughly disgusted with that
phase of life and made up my mind to abandon it. As a matter of fact,
I never did take to business, my bent being more towards travel and science.

"I applied at this time
to H. W. Bates, whom I met at Leicester, and asked him to send me to the
Amazon River on an expedition which he was fitting out.7
I wished particularly to go to that section, having read Edwards's 'Voyage
up the Amazon' and Humboldt's 'Personal Narrative.' My object in going
to this place was to collect natural history material, with a view to
solving the great problem of the origin of species. I returned to England
in 1853, and wrote a book called 'Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.'
The following year I set out on an expedition and spent eight years between
[[p. 621]] Malacca and New Guinea, writing
a book on the Malay Archipelago and the 'Land of the Orang-Utan.'

"I did a great deal of
work on the natural selection theory, and my paper came before Darwin
in 1858. It seems that Darwin had been working along the same lines, and
shortly after reading my paper he published his 'Origin of Species.'

"On my return to London,
in 1866, I gave up traveling for a while and married the daughter of William
Mitten, the well-known botanist. I soon tired of London and decided to
live the rest of my life in the country. I have never had cause to regret
this decision."

Dr. Wallace was, as every
one now knows, a confirmed spiritist, and it was his research into the
occult that, perhaps more than anything else, brought upon him much of
the unfriendly criticism which he had to face in later years from his
fellow-scientists. Like Sir Oliver Lodge and the late William T. Stead,
however, he has not lacked the courage to uphold his opinions boldly with
pen and voice, and his work in the field of psychical research awaits
the test of time. Now that another famous spiritist, Dr. Charles Richet,
of Paris, has just won the Nobel Prize for work in medical research, perhaps
the world will begin to lend a more attentive ear to the subject of future
life: a theme which for many years occupied much of the attention of Dr.
Wallace.

In the course of our
interview Dr. Wallace was asked how he first came to direct his attention
to Spiritism.

"When I returned from
abroad," he replied, "I had read a good deal about Spiritualism, and,
like most people, believed it to be a fraud and a delusion. This was in
1862. At that time I met a Mrs. Marshall, who was a celebrated medium
in London, and after attending a number of her meetings, and examining
the whole question with an open mind and with all the scientific application
I could bring to bear upon it, I came to the conclusion that Spiritualism
was genuine. However, I did not allow myself to be carried away, but I
waited for three years and undertook a most rigorous examination of the
whole subject, and was then convinced of the evidence and genuineness
of Spiritualism.

"The religion of the
future will be based solely on Spiritualism. When great scientists like
Sir Oliver Lodge, Professor W. F. Barrett, Lord Kelvin, and others are
coming out in favor of the spiritualistic truth, it is time for ordinary
people like myself to fall into line.

"While I am a pronounced
Spiritualist, it is not exactly in the popular sense of the term. I believe
that there is a great deal to be learned along lines of legitimate psychological
investigation, and I am of opinion that many students who are pursuing
these studies earnestly will, before long, arrive at some startling truths.
Most scoffers will tell you that this is entirely speculative, but the
well-attested experience of hundreds of investigators cannot be so lightly
set aside.

"It was on this very
point--the existence of spirit--that I differed so largely from Darwin.
He implied that the nature of man--his mind and his soul (if he had one)--was
derived from the lower animals, just as the body was so derived. While
Darwin did not deny the action of the Great First Cause--most persons
think Darwin was an atheist, but they do not understand his work--at the
same time he believed that man's physical and mental structure developed
from the struggle for existence, and that even the intellectual nature
proceeded from the lower animals.

"My argument has always
been that the mind and the spirit, while being influenced by the struggle
for existence, have not originated through natural selection. For hundreds
of years it was believed that the surface of the earth, with all its beauty,
was caused by volcanic action, by wind, frost, rain, and rivers. Most
people admit this, but scientists had to point out that the action of
glaciers was also a cause for the molding of the earth's surface. After
the glacier theory was advanced all the old theories had to make way for
it. It was the same with evolution. It accounts for a great many things,
but there is a limit to its application. Evolution is extremely interesting,
and men fastened on it as the only explanation for all the manifold mysteries
with which they are confronted. Evolution is true in part, but it does
not account by any means for all the facts. I am one who believes there
is something in man that is infinite and which differs in nature as well
as in degree from anything which is seen in the lower animals. I believe
that at a certain epoch of our life, when the body is ready to receive
it, there is an influx of spirit, and our existence in the future depends
very largely [[p. 622]] on how we adapt ourselves
to this new condition when it comes before us.

"It is all very well
to talk about the soul and the spirit and things of that kind, without
any definite idea of just what these phrases mean. But, aside entirely
from these considerations, I maintain that the theory of evolution does
not account for many of the mental attributes of man. It does not account
for our wonderful mathematical, musical, or artistic faculties. Who can
claim that man has received these endowments from some lower animal which
never possessed an inkling of them? Many of the lower animals, it is true,
display a much finer physical and muscular development than man does.
They are gifted with greater agility and endurance, and undoubtedly we
have derived from them many of our physical attributes. But who can reasonably
say that we are indebted to any of the lower animals for our high intellectual
faculties? The gulf which separates the ant from Newton, the ape from
Shakespeare, the parrot from Isaiah, cannot be bridged by the struggle
for existence. To call the spiritual nature of man a 'by-product,' developed
by us in our struggle for existence, is a joke too big for this little
world. It was on this very point that I differed from Darwin, and it is
on these points that I cannot meet the modern materialists who say that
man is merely an animal and there is nothing for him beyond the grave.
It is very well for us to try to account for the material on a mere material
basis, and it may be very satisfactory to some people who do not seriously
consider the subject; but, if the soul has come into being from what is
popularly termed 'the struggle for existence,' how is it that in this
very struggle for existence we meet daily with people who are making self-sacrifices,
exhibiting wonderful heroism and disinterested affection--live men and
women of the day who are actually spending their existence for the sake
of others? If every one were merely engaged in the desperate struggle
for existence, why should any member of the human family try to help along
or support anybody else?

"Evolution can account
well enough for the land-grabber, the company promoter, the trust, and
the sweater, but it fails to account for Raphael and Wagner, Swedenborg,
Newton, Florence Nightingale, or others of this character. The world has
been moved far more by spiritual forces than by material and selfish ones.
Neither Darwin nor Moses has yet conquered mankind. Life, with its mysteries
of consciousness and personality, is still the dumping-ground of theories
and dreams. Until science has demonstrated the existence of the soul man
approaches death with an open mind. I hold that the existence of the soul
and the presence of consciousness beyond the grave have been already proved.
It is because the scientific investigation of psychical matters has become
confused in the popular mind with the imposture of charlatans that indiscriminating
people regard Spiritualism as a fake. An honest and unbiased examination
of all the facts gathered by modern psychologists would certainly open
the eyes of even the most doubtful of all the Thomases.

"Truth is
born into this world only with pangs and tribulations, and every fresh
truth is received unwillingly. To expect the world to receive a new truth,
or even an old truth, without challenging it, is to look for one of those
miracles which do not occur."

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Editor's Notes

1Kent is not the correct county here--Wallace lived in Dorset.

2This
and the following sentence contain gross inaccuracies. Lyell was not President
of the Royal Society at this time, nor did Wallace send his essay (hardly
a "treatise") to him--rather, it was sent to Darwin himself in the hope
that the latter might forward it to Lyell if he (Darwin) thought it might
interest him.

3Wallace's
Land Nationalisation (S722) appeared in 1882, and he had already
published an even earlier lengthy essay on the subject in a prominent
review. This was well before Howard's main works appeared. It has never
been suggested--but is quite possible--that Howard's ideas were as much
or more shaped by Wallace's as the reverse.